UPDATE: The OC Register, in a wise decision to ease its embargo, reports the Kyndall Jack has been located and that rescue operations are underway: “Searchers have found Kyndall Jack, the 18-year-old hiker who has been missing since Sunday evening, according to an official involved in the search. A rescue is under way.”

UPDATE 2: Matt Coker’s coverage in the Weekly is, as is not unusual for him, quite good. Check out the updates in particular. I’d be surprised if the Orange Lady herself had anything much better or quicker on this, except perhaps for better photos and graphics.

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Missing 19-year-old hiker Nicholas Cendoya was airlifted out of Trabuco Canyon at around 9:30 last night, a couple of hours after initially being located. He is reportedly suffering from exposure and was dehydrated and confused. He was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where he was able to walk off of the helicopter on his own power.

His hiking companion, 18-year old Kyndall Jack, has apparently not yet been located. Cendoya told authorities that she was near where he had been rescued, which was near the Holy Jim Trail area north of Rancho Santa Margarita, about a half-mile from where their car had been parked. The steepness of this area of the canyon, evident in the photo below taken from the Holy Jim Trail Facebook Page, and the substantial tree cover have hampered the efforts of searchers.

Photo submitted to the Holy Jim Trail Facebook page, giving a sense of its terrain. (Link to page is in the story.)

the rocky, tree-shaded dirt trail … [which] leads to a waterfall. The 2.8-mile round trip is popular with day hikers. Its difficulty is listed as moderate to serious on a U.S. Forest Service website. Jack and Cendoya, however, ‘did not keep to the trail,’ Orange County sheriff’s Lt. Erin Guidice said.

Comments on Facebook noted the presence of a steep side trail near the falls and speculated that the pair might have taken it.

They told deputies they believed they were about a mile from their car, but they couldn’t find their way back.

Authorities have located their car, a green BMW, but so far have not been able to locate the hikers.

Their cellphone battery died before authorities were able to get an accurate GPS location for the pair.

Following Cendoya’s rescue, an Orange County Sheriff’s spokesperson said that they expected to find Jack as well. Jack’s mother, Dawn Jack, was quoted by NBC-LA as expressing thanks to volunteer searchers but also concern about inexperienced rescuers putting themselves in danger as well:

“We just need our children to come home safely,” Dawn Jack said. “We need for everybody else to leave here safe, so please help us out now by not coming up just to hang out … we know you love us and are supporting us.”

Costa Mesa School Board Member Katrina Foley has been following the story closely, and apparently in touch with the families of the missing hikers. She posted an appreciation amplifying this concern earlier on Wednesday:

Friends… while the families are incredibly appreciative of all of the help today, it is at the point where ONLY experienced hikers and public safety volunteers are helpful. The family knows you care and support them, but they cannot have anyone hanging out at the command center or hiking if they are not experienced because now the rescuers are rescuing volunteers. Thanks again for all the help. The families truly appreciate it. Search continues.

[Note (pre-updates): Personally, as one interested in the story and particularly in this positive development, I am appreciative of the attention paid to it by Facebook friends (such as Foley), whose links allowed the construction of this piece on this high-visibility local story — one not requiring substantial investigative resources, but nevertheless probably of substantial local interest. – G.A.D.]

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose worker's rights and government accountability attorney, residing in northwest Brea. General Counsel of CATER, the Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility, a non-partisan group of people sick of local corruption.
Deposed as Northern Vice Chair of DPOC in April 2014 when his anti-corruption and pro-consumer work in Anaheim infuriated the Building Trades and Teamsters in spring 2014, who then worked with the lawless and power-mad DPOC Chair to eliminate his internal oversight.
Occasionally runs for office to challenge some nasty incumbent who would otherwise run unopposed. (Someday he might pick a fight with the intent to win rather than just dent someone. You'll know it when you see it.) He got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012 and in 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002.
None of his pre-putsch writings ever spoke for the Democratic Party at the local, county, state, national, or galactic level, nor do they now.
A family member co-owns a business offering campaign treasurer services to Democratic candidates and the odd independent. He is very proud of her. He doesn't directly profit from her work and it doesn't affect his coverage. (He does not always favor her clients, though she might hesitate to take one that he truly hated.)
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)

44 Comments

Yeah….facebook was the lead on this story for breaking leads.My daughter was listening to the link for the live scanner when they were transporting the young man to the hospital. There was a cautionary posting to keep info to a minimum and to be sensitive to the families

I decided to write this up last night because (1) it was the first important (in terms of public awareness and concern) breaking story that had come out after the Register’s started its embargo of information to non-subscribers and (2) I realized that I had access to a decent stream of information only through the accident of a link on Facebook to someone who was monitoring it closely and reporting on it well. If this is our new local media world now, I wanted to get a sense of what that world is like.

My conclusions: (1) you can still get info on such breaking events, but mostly from the TV stations based in LA, and (2) judging from the solid number of readers this article has received, this sort of straightforward reportage (or re-reportage) is of general interest.

I now want to find out whether they’ve found and rescued Kendall Jack. Where do I look? Not, probably, the Register — a change from what I’d have done last week.

Honestly, he just needs a trusted aide to accompany him to press conferences with a variable strength set of tranquilizer darts and, for emergencies, a water cannon. He’d need to ratchet down an order of magnitude just to get to the point where he’s simply “trying too hard.”

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes the area that he’s also represented in various elected capacities over the past 15 years, was more pointed in his comments about the canyon’s day users.

“It’s a lovely place, but it’s a very dangerous place,” he said. “There are waterfalls and places only accessible by foot and folklore and legends.” He then said the teens’ “curiosity” or possible lack of “personal responsibility” may have been the cause of them getting lost. “This place burns and floods,” he said, adding people should still come and enjoy the area. (Well, with that kind of advertisement . . .)

Spitzer added everyone is praying for the fallen reserve deputy, who along with those who were standing behind the career politician “put their lives at risk for people who are not thinking clearly to have a good time. We want people to enjoy it, use it, but be very careful.”

He said many people put themselves in harm’s way and many resources were poured into ensuring “Nick and Kyndall . . . have their future ahead of them.”

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But the question remains, why does Greg keep calling Kyndall Kendall? Do you not like the pretty spelling her parents gave her? Can I fix all your comments, I’ve fixed the story….

I don’t pick and choose….. The KIDS made poor choices. Unfortunate as they may be but let’s not be unreasonable Why were two kids with NO OUTDOOR experience doing hiking in the hills (the surprisingly dangerous hills)?

Maybe in the Diamond family where fights between blacks, coach rape, and vandalism is non existent at your hometown school, that is called “giving them a break”.

I choose to make this a lesson: When you mess with dope, YOU BETTER BE 100%. Bad shit happens fast and without warning.

There are limits. you know. I am stunned you don’t toe the center line more given your position of influence.

I’m guessing that you don’t actually know what you are alleging is true to *be* true, am I right? That’s what I find objectionable. If you *know* that it’s true, then you’re entitled to apply that opinion to them. Otherwise, no.

Well then let’s just legalize it once and for all and let the market sort it out. Conservative ideology, right? (I’d welcome some regulation like testing for poisons and such, of course, but then I’m a liberal and I think that that improves the market.)

I hope the ocsd obtained blood samples frome these knuckleheads. If they come up positive for hallucinogens, i say they should be billed for this search and be forced to pay for the medical bill of the sheriff volunteer who was injured because of their acid trip hiking foray.

While it’s possible that they both intentionally took hallucinogens, it’s also possibly that something provided to them was spiked, that they ate some bad mushrooms or something on the trail, etc. The acute effects of LSD don’t last that long, so at some point what she’s describing would be the effects of dehydration, stress, panic, darkness, etc. I’m sort of surprised at people being so willing to jump to the conclusion that they went hiking while (insert whatever the vogue term is here), but also sort of not surprised.

The drug accusations are in fact true. They were both tested positive for ecstasy. The news media will not release this info, but I have a very reliable uniformed source! I have mixed feelings about this info being leaked. On one hand, I think it should remain private to protect the young kids. On another, someone needs to be made accountable for the other injuries to the volunteers and rescuers. Bills need to be paid. And an example needs to be made!!

No…I meant “uniformed”. That’s all I can say. And I do thank God that he kept both Nick and Kyndall safe and brought them home. I hope that this was an eye opening experience for them and they use it to teach others the danger of not being completely prepared for a hike in the wilderness and that there is a time and place and a responsibility that comes with the decision to do recreational drugs. This was not it. Their lack of planning and thought worried and hurt family and friends close to them, put volunteer searchers in danger, and eventually caused a serious injury with one rescuer because she tried to “scoot down a little hill”. Again…my prayers are with both families, and this isn’t a message meant to be a lecture on drug use, but one for those, no longer minors in age, learning to be more responsible for their actions.

Pardon me for not prejudging based on others’ alleged sources. The county already said that it wouldn’t charge them for the rescue. If it’s true, and if it’s provable, both will probably end up facing financial “justice” through a civil suit by the rescuer that was injured.

I tend to think that people don’t want to destroy what was (as resolved) a feel-good story.

Wow, what happened to people? Prior to rescue & official police statements announcements were made at Costa Mesa high school claiming they were high on pot. Now people claim x….. Do people really have nothing better to do than slander two young people based on nothing more than speculation or gossip??? How about just allowing a couple basically good kids some privacy & the benefit of a mountain of doubt. A school that makes such announcements should be sued & people that gossip online about people they don’t know should be edited for gross stupidity. Get a life!!! Kids & adults all do dumb things…..reading all these ignorant comments prove that. Idiot volunteers also got lost… Were they on drugs too???

My mom is on staff at CMHS so my source is solid …. They made 100% inappropriate announcements in regard to these kids prior to official information from law enforcement.

The only crime is wild speculation, lack of survival skills & widespread ignorance!!!

I’m just glad these kids were found & hopefully learned a valuable lesson about survival skills.

OOOOOOPS!! Our bad!!! Not X….just meth!
“A teenage hiker who was rescued after going missing in Trabuco Canyon in March was charged Wednesday with possession of methamphetamine.
Nicolas Cendoya, 19, and his friend, 18-year-old Kyndall Jack, went missing while hiking on Easter Sunday. They were each found separately several days later.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said methamphetamine was found on or around March 31 in Cendoya’s parked car in the Cleveland National Forest.”